Paraguay must continue suspended from Mercosur following the group’s presidential summit on Friday, anticipated the head of the Latin American desk from the Brazilian Foreign ministry, Antonio Jose Ferreira Simoes.

“Conditions have not been altered”, said Simoes regarding the current situation of Paraguay which has been suspended from the block since June 22 when following the impeachment by the Senate Fernando Lugo was removed from office and replaced by Vice president Federico Franco.

The suspension of Paraguay is one of the several points of the agenda the presidents are expected to address on Friday in Brasilia following on Thursday’s meeting of the block’s Foreign Affairs and Economy ministers and Central bank governors.

Simoes recalled that the other regional grouping Unasur in its last summit last week in Lima, Peru decided to continue with the suspension of Paraguay. Mercosur is currently made up of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela and suspended Paraguay.

Originally when the suspension was announced both by Mercosur and Unasur it was understood to last until the coming presidential election scheduled for 21 April 2013. The argument for the sanction was that the removal of Lugo was a “rupture of the democratic process” contrary to the charters of both regional groups.